The ability of 20 learning disabled (LD) and 20 non-LD students (mean age of 9 years) to process temporal order information was assessed by employing a relative recency judgment task. Ss were administered lists composed of pictures of everyday objects and were then asked to indicate which item appeared latest on the list (that is, most recently). Non-LD Ss made significantly more correct recency judgment than LD Ss. Objects appearing on different color backgrounds were more easily judged than objects appearing on same color backgrounds. Further, there was an interaction between population and background condition: LD Ss made a smaller number of correct recency judgments than non-LD Ss in the same color background condition. It is concluded that although the ability to encode relative recency information may be an automatic process, the ability to make judgments of relative recency may depend more upon the nature of the events being encoded and the situations in which the judgments are being made. (CL)